U.S.-led inspection team to leave Baghdad

U.N. orders departure of inspector branded as U.S. spy

January 15, 1998
Web posted at: 11:05 p.m. EST (0405 GMT)

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- A United Nations weapons inspection team whose chief was accused by Iraqi officials of being an American spy will leave Baghdad Friday morning.

But Charles Duelfer, deputy chairman of the U.N. commission investigating Iraq's program for building weapons of mass destruction, denied that the decision amounted to capitulation to the Iraqis, who have objected to the presence of Scott Ritter, a former U.S. military officer who headed the team.

"It's the end of a week of inspections that had been planned, and (Ritter) will be returning back to his home office in New York," Duelfer told CNN. "It is not intended to send a signal. It is not intended to mean anything other than the period of time of this inspection is over and he is coming home."

The decision to remove Ritter was made by U.N. chief weapons inspector Richard Butler. He left New York Thursday on a trip to Iraq, with stops in Paris and Bahrain before arriving Monday in Baghdad.

He is expected to meet with Ritter in Bahrain before heading to the Iraqi capital, according to Duelfer.

Removing Ritter 'practical decision'

Twice this week, Iraqi officials blocked Ritter's team from conducting searches of possible Iraqi weapons sites. They claim Ritter is a spy for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, a charge the United Nations and the United States have denied.

United Nations weapons inspectors

"We decided that it made no more sense for him to hang around in Baghdad without being able to accomplish his task," Duelfer said, calling the removal of Ritter's team "a simple, practical decision."

Wednesday, the U.N. Security Council approved a statement "deploring" the Iraqi move to block Ritter's team from doing its work. And U.S. President Bill Clinton said Iraqi officials would not be allowed to decide the makeup of inspection teams.

Eric Ruben, a spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council in Washington, said the decision to pull Ritter from Iraq was not an indication that the international community was backing down to Iraqi demands to change the composition of the inspection teams, which they say are too weighted with American and British experts.

"The team had a narrow focus from the beginning and was scheduled to be there for a short period of time," Ruben said, adding that the United States "respects" Butler's decision.

Team sought evidence of human testing

The U.S.-led team in Iraq was looking into evidence that Iraq may have tested chemical and biological weapons on prisoners. Top Iraqi officials have denied the charges.

U.N. officials in New York say there is photographic evidence showing beagles writhing in agony from chemical and biological agents, as well as a human arm covered with lesions. But they caution that those photographs are not conclusive proof that Iraq has performed human experiments.

Iraq has acknowledged testing chemical and biological agents on animals before the United Nations ordered the destruction of those weapons in 1991, after the Persian Gulf War.

Russia, France, China weigh in

Also Thursday, Russia, France and China -- the three permanent members of the U.N. Security Council who have taken a more conciliatory approach toward Iraq than have the other two, the United States and Britain -- weighed in with their own initiatives:

• Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev offered Russian-made spy planes to replace American U-2 reconnaissance aircraft being used by the United Nations to monitor Iraq. The Iraqis have objected to the flights, which are conducted by U.S. crews under U.N. auspices.

• France said that Butler, in meetings with French officials on his way to Iraq, would discuss how to reinforce French participation in the arms inspection missions.

• China issued an appeal to Iraq to cooperate with the weapons inspections, but a spokesman for its Foreign Ministry in Beijing said "legitimate concerns of Iraq as a sovereign state should be respected." Butler announced Wednesday that he had hired three Chinese experts for his arms control teams to blunt Iraqi criticisms of their makeup.

Amman Bureau Chief Ben Wedeman, Senior U.N. Correspondent Richard Roth, White House Correspondent Eileen O'Connor and Reuters contributed to this report.

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